For those who’s been under a rock for the past few months, the internet was recently awash with angry bloggers and confused web users over the scandalous arrest of tv-links founder, and the closing of the site for “providing links to copyrighted material”.

Many hundreds of comments included “If linking is illegal, why don’t they shut down youtube, or google?” and rightly so. A link in itself contains no copyrightable material, and the responsibility should be with the server hosting the content. It’s very simple people.

Why indeed don’t they shut down Google, Youtube and many other sites for the same reason? A revelation by the BBC (who were strangely quiet on the tv-links issue) may point to the real reason this site was targetted.

The BBC has launched a new easy-to-use service that lets you access television programmes via your PC. Initially, BBC iPlayer is offering “seven-day catch-up television” – meaning that BBC TV programmes can be downloaded for free up to a week after transmission.

The programmes are free for UK licence fee payers, at high quality and with no advertising. Once you have downloaded a programme to your computer you have 30 days within which to start watching and seven days to finish watching it. After this time, the programme will automatically be deleted.

Could it be that this was orchestrated by F.A.C.T (The Federation Against Copyright Theft) to pave the way for the government sponsored BBC, and other mainstream TV channels to enter a clear market for their own online broadcasts?

Considering the fact that the BBC already has a licencing deal with YouTube/Google, why would they focus on larger companies like this when they can profit from it?

I don’t condone copyright infringement or piracy, but a link is a link - and cannot, or should not be illegal. It’s nothing more than an instruction to the browser, which links to a 3rd-party video host. With that in mind, how can the law justify closing down tv-links and not google? The short answer - It can’t.

The arrest, along with the licence-fee funded i-Player, and BBC/YouTube content agreement, a licence fee backed by the government, who oversee the Metropolitan Police, who enforce copyright law through FACT. Is anyone spotting a pattern here?

If you step on the toes of a government-backed corporation, you’re getting shut down… unless of course they can make a tidy profit a-la YouTube. Just where does this leave the humble web startup? What can you link to these days?

©SE all rights reserved. Linking policy